Franklin County's Rosane says bluntly that teachers and staff are resistant to innovation in schools.

Nov. 20, 2012

Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

A Franklin County school superintendent vented publicly this week about the slow pace of reforms he wants to see at one of the largest public high schools in the area, Bellows Free Academy-St. Albans.

Robert Rosane, superintendent of the Franklin Central Supervisory Union, blasted faculty and administration for blocking innovation in an email he sent Monday to BFA social studies teacher and union leader Justin Bedell.

He copied the media on the email and amplified his concerns in an interview.

In the email to Bedell, Rosane said too many BFA students are graduating without meeting reading and math proficiency standards. Gradual change and a “Mr. Rogers” world of feel-good consensus won’t solve the problem, he wrote.

“Unless you can prove that current practice at BFA meets the needs of the majority of students, you need to support innovation and stop being obstructionist,” Rosane wrote. He threatened to push back against teachers and administrators who resist change.

“I am ordering you, and the administration, to innovate and reflect based on data. ... If the current model is working, and the measures are wrong, prove it. The overwhelming evidence is that your practice is not working.”

Bedell, a leader in the Bellows Free Academy Education Association, which is part of the Vermont-NEA, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Jim Mercier, chair of the BFA-St. Albans school board, did not return a phone message but did issue a short statement.

It read: “The Bellows Free Academy values the Educational Stakeholders in our community, and understands that this is a complex matter. The Board will review this matter very closely, and will provide future statements once that action is complete.”

Michael Malone, chair of the Franklin Central Supervisory Union Board, said he had not read Rosane’s email and couldn’t comment on it.

"I do know Bob’s positions on things and I do know he sees the need for change,” Malone said. “I just don’t know if I can actually comment on this until I talk to my executive committee."

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Test scores at Bellows Free Academy, which enrolls around 1,000 students, are even with the state average in reading and slightly below in math. About 71 percent of 11th graders scored at or above proficiency in reading on the most recent New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) test, the same as the state average. Thirty-one percent were proficient in math, compared to 36 percent statewide.

The school, like many across Vermont, did not meet adequate yearly progress goals under the No Child Left Behind Act, which is pushing for 100 percent student proficiency in reading and math by 2014. If things don’t improve, the school could be restructured and the principal could be replaced. Many other schools face similar consequences as No Child Left Behind standards ratchet up.

This year, BFA launched a new program called Academy 21. About 60 freshmen are enrolled in the prototype, which is designed to give students more of a say in their education and measure progress with demonstrations of proficiency rather than completion of credit hours or “seat time.” The structure allows students to spend more time in certain subjects if they need it and less time in others.

Rosane sees Academy 21 as a much-needed innovation, although he conceded that some parents are worried the non-traditional approach will hurt their children’s college chances.

The Academy will evolve and change but it’s not going away, Rosane said. “Our Academy 21 model says basically we need to make learning personal and we need to get rid of the time component and our (teachers) association is pushing back on that and saying, ‘guess what, time can’t be flexible’ and that’s really problematic.”

Rosane wants teachers to be more flexible about their work hours, less wedded to the traditional high school structure and more willing to dig deep and analyze current data, he said in an interview.

He decided to go public with his concerns to hurry up change, he said. "It was simply that I am absolutely at a frustration point where I don’t seem to be able to hold up the mirror to my administration and my faculty and say hey, you know what, we’re not doing the job we need to do. Face reality. I don’t know how else to say that."

With more than 60 percent of students at BFA not meeting math standards, it’s time to open up and stop pretending there’s no problem, he continued. "I want to call (expletive) on that,” Rosane said during a telephone interview.

Other schools in the supervisory union are moving forward on the type of self-study and dialogue Rosane wants to see at BFA-St. Albans, he said.

“It is happening at our three K-8 schools. They are doing a fabulous job and it’s simply not happening at our high school. Our high school seems to feel that they are immune to innovation."

In letter to parents earlier this year, BFA St. Albans principal Dennis Hill explained that the school did not meet federal progress standards but pointed out that it remains a popular “school of choice” in the region, with many students from surrounding communities that don’t have a public high school opting to attend BFA. School was closed for Thanksgiving break Tuesday and efforts to reach Hill were not immediately successful.